As the first 30 trucks in the humanitarian convoy headed for war-torn eastern Ukraine, the residents of Lugansk - struggling daily without regular food supplies, water, electricity and under constant shelling - are looking forward to the aid relief.

On Friday, the Russian convoy crossed the Ukrainian border and
started moving in the direction of Lugansk, after Moscow had
ordered it to proceed, without waiting for further instructions
or permission from Kiev.

Due to the electricity black-out and the lack of water, many
local enterprises have to a halt in Lugansk. RT traveled to what
used to be the area’s biggest bread-baking facilities and spoke
with one of the employees, Vasily, who said that he doesn’t know
how the locals get by.

“I don’t know why they are doing this, I stopped being afraid
and just live my everyday life,” he told RT.

There are make-shift markets in the region, with most of the
traders coming from neighboring villages, where the situation is
a bit less catastrophic.

Lugansk residents come to the market to buy goods – or for
exchange, as no payments have been made in the city over the past
few weeks, and the prices are through the roof.

Queues form early in the morning, with people getting their
numbers and waiting in long lines. When the food is brought,
there isn’t enough, the locals say.

“People have nothing to eat,” Igor, a local elderly man,
states miserably.

“Over three weeks – how is that possible? 250,000 people
remain in the city – what are we left to do? We don’t have a
single liter of water, no electricity, nothing,” Lyubov
Ivanova, a Lugansk resident, exclaimed emotionally.

Therefore, the humanitarian aid which is coming from Russia is
much needed, they say.

“Our damned fool of a president says that what Russia sends
is nothing. How is that – 280 trucks coming to help us – it’s
nothing for him!” Lyubov Fedorova, a Lugansk resident, told
RT.

On Thursday, the International Red Cross representatives spoke of
a very difficult humanitarian situation in
Lugansk, after visiting the city to check it before the arrival
of the Russian aid.

“There is no water, electricity, food supplies, people are
cut off from the vital infrastructure. People are afraid to leave
their homes because they can come under fire. Apart from that,
the shelling targets residential areas sometimes which represents
a danger for the civilian population,” the ICRC head in
Europe and Asia Laurent Corbaz said.